


told you so

by manzana



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Webcams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 05:49:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2377085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manzana/pseuds/manzana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which rin has an easy solution to the whole “i miss your face” aspect of this long distance relationship thing</p>
            </blockquote>





	told you so

**Author's Note:**

> cross-posted from [tumblr](http://princessbubblgum.tumblr.com/post/98676920389/sourin-4987-words-in-which-rin-has-an-easy)!!

"Whatever happened to air mail…" Sousuke grumbles to himself. "Or phone calls? Or _email_ , for that matter? Or is even that too archaic?" He drags his mouse around his desk and clicks the toolbar on his desktop computer, opening up settings and toying with different options in hopes of finding something helpful. With his other hand, he plays with the volume dials on his speakers, turning them up and down experimentally.

 

He turns one up a couple of notches, then in his headphones hears, "shut up, you sound like an old man," from a voice that still manages to elicit a jolt of delight in him when he heard it, even more so now that he heard it less frequently than he had been spoiled with last school year. 

 

"Ah, you heard that," Sousuke says with a grin. "So I guess the sound is working now." 

 

"Yeah," Rin mumbles. "Can you see me yet?" 

 

"No, there's no video. Just a little black window recording the length of the call." 

 

"Is there a tiny green button shaped like a camera in the corner of the window?" 

 

"Uh. Yes."

 

"Idiot. Click that." 

 

Sousuke does as he's told, and in his peripherals he sees a tiny green light illuminate on the top of the little round webcam sitting atop his computer monitor. It draws his curious gaze -- he hadn't ever used the thing since Rin had gifted it to him the day before he left for Australia, which meant he had no idea how to operate it. But green lights always seemed to be a good sign. 

 

"There you are. Finally," he hears Rin say, and he can hear both the smile and the exasperation in his tone. 

 

His eyes flick down to the computer screen, and he sees the black window has been replaced now with an even bigger window, one that contains Rin's smirking face. In the corner he sees a tinier square displaying his own face, and he's immediately embarrassed by the way he looks, with his mouth hanging open from his surprise and his eyes wide and filled with a laughably obvious desperate look of longing. 

 

Sousuke felt he couldn't really be blamed for this reaction. He hadn't seen Rin's face in weeks, not since Sousuke saw him off at the airport, and it was almost overwhelming to take it in all at once. He looks worn, but not weary, like he'd been active all day and was currently in a state of much deserved rest. His hair is messy in a way Sousuke is familiar with, not quite bed-head, more like the gentle dishevelment that resulted from an afternoon nap, tiny hairs sticking up in places and the bangs pushed back with a lazy gesture of his hand. He's wearing a big sweater, which is only further evidence of the alleged nap, for Rin would never be caught dead outside in something so casual and plain. It takes Sousuke a second or two to realize that this sweater belongs to him, or at least it used to a long time ago, before some outing the two of them had went on when Rin got too cold and Sousuke was unable to stand for this. 

 

He at long last draws his eyes to Rin's mouth, to the slight curl of his playful grin and the tiny flash of teeth where they nibbled just slightly on his bottom lip. The same mouth that he'd spent a year memorizing, that he'd kissed probably a hundred times at the airport alone, that was now thousands of kilometers across the ocean where he couldn't kiss them or bite them or feel along the skin of his body -- there they were, projected to him centimeters away on a computer monitor, so close but not close enough in the way he wishes they were. 

 

Sousuke reacts involuntarily before he remembers Rin can see him just as well as he can, and he catches the ridiculous way his own tongue darts out and licks along his bottom lip. He hopes he'd been subtle enough that Rin would miss it, but Rin laughs, and Sousuke knows this is not the case. 

 

"Still wish we were just having a phone call?" Rin asks snidely.

 

"You're brilliant," Sousuke says with a slightly mesmerized nod. He can't take his eyes off of Rin's face, and he's reached a point where he's decided to ignore the lovestruck look of his mirrored image in the bottom corner of the screen. "I take it all back. Smartest thing you've ever done, buying me this thing." 

 

Rin shrugs. "Somebody had to be the brains in this relationship, right?" 

 

When Sousuke can't even bring himself to utter a clever retort to that, Rin's smirk softens until he looks almost shy, glancing away here and there as Sousuke continues to stare at him like he's uncovered some amazing treasure tucked away from the eyes of the world. 

 

Slowly, Sousuke's lips slide into a gentle smile as he leans on his right hand, and he breathes, "god, I miss you." 

 

"You're so embarrassing," Rin mutters into the palm of his right hand where it holds up his own head, glancing away from his webcam. Sousuke can see the smile he's trying to fight, though; it reaches his eyes and Sousuke is thankful for the quality of the video that enables him to still see details like this, details he's always loved but had gone way too long without. 

 

There's a noise from Rin's end that's too soft for Sousuke to decipher, and it appears to be something in the room with Rin because Rin's eyes suddenly focus on an area of the room somewhere out of Sousuke's view, his eyebrows suddenly shooting up behind his bangs. He pulls away from his hand, revealing that smile, and then he glances at the webcam, holding up his index finger as he does. 

 

"Hold on." He stands up from his chair and leaves the frame. 

 

In the few seconds he's gone, Sousuke can now see rest of the room behind him. There's not much to it -- half a bookshelf that's holding way too many books on it; his bed, the unkempt state of which only confirmed that Rin "Neat Freak" Matsuoka had definitely just woken up from a nap; and a wall. 

 

On it, though, Sousuke can see the giant map of the world that he recognizes as the going-away present he'd bought for Rin. He'd included thumb tacks with it, and special instructions for how to use the two colors: yellow ones for the places he wanted to go and red for the places he'd been. There were a couple red ones already stuck on there, in all the obvious places, and three times as many yellow ones scattered all over it. His eyes are drawn to Japan, if only because somewhere over the Tottori prefecture is what looks to be a thumb tack he hadn't included, bright aqua in color. It's the only one on the map with that color. 

 

He wants to ask about it, not because he had no idea what it was for, but because he wants to hear Rin to say it, but when Rin returns a moment later, he is not alone. 

 

"Look at this thing," Rin says through his wide grin, now cradling a tubby black medium-sized dog. It has its tongue hanging out, panting at Rin's laptop, but when it notices Sousuke, its ears perks up before it starts wiggling around in Rin's lap. Rin laughs, trying to calm the animal down by scratching it gently under the chin, but it places both its paws on his desk and tries to get closer to the laptop. 

 

"Winnie, no," Rin says. "He's in the computer. He can't pet you." He focuses his gaze on Sousuke as he wrestles the dog back into his lap. "This is Winnie. I think she likes you, but to be fair she pretty much likes anyone."

 

"Nice to meet you, Winnie," Sousuke says, forcing down his smile as he tries to sound serious. "I'd shake your tiny dog paw but -- you know how it is. Distance and all that. Rin can explain it to you." 

 

"Check this out." 

 

Rin turns the dog to face him, then holds out a fist to her. 

 

"Winnie, bump." 

 

The dog stares at his hand, sniffs it experimentally, then holds out a paw and gently taps it. 

 

Rin looks so proud, you'd think the dog had just completed an incredibly difficult math problem. "I taught her that!" 

 

Sousuke laughs loudly into his hand. 

 

"Hey, I needed somebody to do that with," Rin says. "She's been my best friend for years. I think she deserves it." 

 

"I'm glad I'm so easily replaceable." 

 

"You should be honored that Winnie took it upon herself to fill your shoes."

 

"Winnie," Sousuke pleads, sounding desperate. "Please don't steal Rin from me. I'm begging you. He's all I've got." 

 

"Shut up, you loser," Rin laughs, bending over to deposit the dog onto the ground. 

 

"How long are you planning on staying there again?" Sousuke asks. 

 

Rin shrugs. "My scholarships are covering the money situation, so It's only until I find a place to rent. But Russell and Lori -- " 

 

"Your host family." 

 

"Yes," Rin said, smiling in a particularly soft way Sousuke immediately recognizes. "They keep insisting I stay longer. I think they were happy to have me under their roof again."

 

There was a day back at Samezuka, long even before the two had become romantically intwined, when Sousuke and Rin had laid awake in their respective bunks and had a conversation that lasted until the sun already started to rise, where Rin had spilled everything about his time in Australia. He'd painted vivid stories with his words, and these two, his homestay parents, played major roles. At the time, Sousuke had developed an instant liking toward them without having ever met them, partly because of all they had done for Rin and partly because of this face Rin would wear whenever he would talk about them. 

 

"In the last few years I'd been gone, they couldn't even bring themselves to rent out the room to anyone else," Rin continues. "Kept saying they were hoping I'd come back. You can imagine how happy they were to hear I was moving here after school." He shakes his head in fond disbelief. "Can you imagine that? They missed me that much."

 

"Can't blame them, really. It's hard not to."

 

Rin rolls his eyes.

 

"No, really," Sousuke goes on. He pauses, reflecting. "You're kind of like a hurricane, y'know."

 

"A destructive force of nature, huh? Thanks." 

 

"More like -- " Sousuke glances at the ceiling in thought. "You don't just show up; you change people, leave a huge impression wherever you go. In a good way, of course." He smiles, his eyes trailing back down to find Rin. "Unlike a hurricane, it's hard to say goodbye to." 

 

Rin is silent and staring down at his desk, and for one terrifying moment, Sousuke thinks he might cry. Every time the two had a conversation, Sousuke always had to remind himself to keep his sentimental thoughts to himself while Rin was so far away -- it was unfair for both of them for him to cry while Sousuke was too far to hold him or press his mouth to the corners of his eyelids and kiss them away. 

 

It was just as hard to resist letting his love spill out like he did, though, in whatever fashion that might take, and anyway it was too late now to take the words back. 

 

Rin doesn't cry though. He sighs and rubs his eyes with the sleeve of Sousuke's sweater but he doesn't cry. When he looks up again, he's wearing another soft smile. This one is different; he has a lot of different smiles, all of which Sousuke can tell apart, and this one he reserved for Sousuke whenever he said or did something that inevitably resulted in Rin kissing him. Something flutters in Sousuke's chest when he sees it, something that feels like a painful sort mix of longing and affection, and he struggles to fight the feeling down, especially when there isn't a lot he can do about it right now.

 

"Anyway," Sousuke finally says, as if talking will pacify the sensation. "How's your week been so far?"

 

Rin looks grateful for the change in subject, the smile quickly dissolving into a relaxed neutral expression. He shrugs, leaning on his hand again. "Classes were whatever."

 

"You're just too smart for your own good," Sousuke says, nodding. "I can see you getting bored."

 

"It's not that," Rin continues. "They're interesting enough. It's just so hard to care in general when I know I've got practice a few hours later."

 

"You had practice earlier today didn't you? How'd it go?" Sousuke likes to hear about Rin's swimming experiences there in Australia. He lights up in a way Sousuke hadn't seen in years, not since they were children. Not that high school hadn't been fulfilling, but Rin's on a whole other level now and it's ignited a fire in him that's almost terrifying in its brilliance. 

 

Rin flashes his predatory shark grin. "I set another record."

 

"Didn't you already set one the first day you got there?"

 

"I beat my own time." He looks like a giddy little boy. and it's frighteningly adorable. 

 

"Proud of you." 

 

"Thanks!" Rin sits back in his chair, grinning at the ceiling. "Oh my god, you should've seen my teammates. Stunned. Like, 'who's this Japanese asshole dropping out of the sky, robbing us of all our record-setting times and leaving us in the dust?!'"

 

"Careful," Sousuke says, though he's painfully enamored by this side of Rin and more than encourages it. "You've got to swim relay with some of those people."

 

"We're fine," Rin says, waving him off. "Just yesterday they took me out to my first Australian bar and everything." He stops, as if recalling a memory, then smirks. "I got hit on." 

 

Sousuke raises a single eyebrow. "Oh?" 

 

The smirk grows wider at that response. "It was a man."

 

"Of course it was." Sousuke rolls his eyes. "What'd he look like?"

 

"Nice enough." Rin shrugs. "Not my type, though. Don't worry."

 

"Why would I worry? I've already lost you to Winnie, my greatest competition, so things can only go uphill from there, to be honest." 

 

"Oh, please," Rin snorts. "And how do I know you're not falling in love over there?"

 

"No vacancy in here." Sousuke gestures to his chest, where his heart is located. "It's pretty full. Single occupant is very selfishly hogging the whole place to himself." 

 

"Well then," Rin says, leaning onto his hand. "If you're not falling in love with other people, what are you doing out there with your time?" 

 

As casual as Rin makes the question sound, Sousuke knows he'd been waiting this entire time to ask this. It was a frequent question he got asked by this boy, phrased differently each time but with the meaning more or less the same. It's the part of their conversations that Sousuke is least fond of. It's not even just with Rin; he hated being asked about his life in general, from anyone, mostly because he had little to offer. 

 

Still, what Rin wanted, Rin got, so he musters the effort to share something.

 

"I, uh," Sousuke starts, trying to think of something. "Oh. I decorated a cake this week." 

 

Rin breathes a small laugh. "How'd that turn out?"

 

"Pretty godawful. I think I got more frosting on me than on the cake." He snorts derisively at the memory. "Fortunately dad was able to do damage control in time for the client to pick it up." 

 

Sousuke scratches the back of his neck. "Not cut out for the kitchen at all." 

 

Rin stares at him like he's a fool. "Yeah, and the sky is blue and water is wet." He shrugs his shoulders. "When are you going to start listening to me?" 

 

"Hey, a plane ticket to Australia isn't going to pay for itself. I need some kind of income."

 

"Yeah." 

 

Rin glances away and Sousuke sighs. He hadn't been planning on sharing this right away -- less because he didn't want Rin to know and more because he didn't want Rin's smug " _I told you so_ " spiel, but he can't stand the disappointment Rin wears so proceeds anyway. 

 

"I also -- "

 

"Hm?"

 

" -- visited Samezuka this week." 

 

This bit of information takes Rin by surprise as much as it piques his interest, their last exchange forgotten almost immediately. "Oh? How'd it go?"

 

"Well, for starters, Mikoshiba literally leaped onto me." Sousuke shakes his head. "He had his legs wrapped around my torso and everything. It took three team members to pry him off." 

 

Rin laughs. "That sounds like Momo." 

 

"He kept asking about you. Told me to store him in my suitcase whenever I come visit."

 

"Can you imagine him over here? Man." Rin laughs again just thinking about it. "They'd throw him out of the country." 

 

Sousuke can hear the touch of wistfulness and affection in the words; he knows Rin misses his boys. 

 

"I'll invite him over here one weekend so he can say hi through this thing." 

 

Rin nods and smiles, looking genuinely grateful for the offer, then goes on, "how's Ai?" 

 

"That's actually why I was there. Wanted to see how he was getting on." 

 

Sousuke remembers the way Nitori had looked at him when he'd arrived, like a beacon of light in a dark tunnel. He'd started sputtering at him immediately, listing all his worries without pausing to take a breath, and Sousuke had to place a heavy hand on his head to calm him. 

 

"They listen to him because they like him," he goes on, recalling the way he'd observed the beginning of practice. "But he doesn't seem to know what he's doing."

 

"There's more to being captain than enforcing training regimens and barking orders," Rin says, an edge to his words, as if personally affronted by Sousuke's remark. 

 

"I know. You're the one who really perfected that happy medium between commanding leader and tender loving mother." 

 

"Hey -- "

 

"As I was saying -- " Sousuke continues. "He doesn't know what he's doing, but he's fair and he's patient and he's got a lot of heart. In general, he has a lot of potential. I gave him some pointers and helped out during practice for the bits that needed more of a sterner approach."

 

Sousuke sees a smile growing on Rin's lips as he talks, and he shrugs, trying to make it sound like less of a big deal than he was sure Rin was probably making it out to be. "Did a lot of things I thought you might do if you were there." 

 

"I'm glad," Rin says, his grin loud in his tone.

 

"He invited me to come back whenever I want. Begged, more like it."

 

"You should." 

 

"I might." 

 

Rin leans forward eagerly. "How'd you like it? Coaching?" 

 

Sousuke is silent a moment, because he knows exactly what Rin wants to hear, and he's bashful to admit it. "It was nice. It felt really… fulfilling." 

 

"I figured as much." Rin snorts. "Thats a good first step, Sousuke. I'm proud of you."

 

Sousuke says nothing. He can tell Rin wants to say so much more. If he wasn't holding back he'd likely be bouncing in his seat, declaring, "I knew it! I told you not to give up because I knew!!" so he's at least grateful that he said as much as he did. 

 

Still, he's always embarrassed to admit how right Rin is most of the time. 

 

Not wanting to push the subject too much, Rin redirects the conversation back to Ai specifically, asking more about his methods for conducting practice. Sousuke shares what he remembers, that Momo's brother had been there as well and had struck up conversation with him about the things he'd observed about Ai's style. He had had some things to say about the ways Ai, like Mikoshiba himself, kept practice somewhat structured and traditional, while still incorporating a few new ideas he was trying to implement, in true Rin-fashion.

 

"A little bit of his first captain and a bit of his last, in other words," Rin says with a laugh. "Is he still doing my goggle snap thing? Has he mastered that yet?"

 

"The day he manages to do that without hurting himself is, I think, the day he will officially feel worthy of his title."

 

Rin laughs fondly at that, begins to go on to ask how Ai's patience is holding up with Momo. Sousuke's answer to this is to email him a photo he took of the team posing ridiculously in a way that was obviously orchestrated by Momo himself, with Ai looking mortified in the background, and Rin is crying with laughter before he's suddenly interrupted mid-sound.Though it's faint, Sousuke can tell he's heard something on his end. Rin holds up a finger again, then turns around in his chair to glance off screen.

 

His lips move and it's English that comes out. Though Sousuke is not as proficient as him, he can at least understand, "come in." 

 

Sousuke remembers the first time Rin spoke english to him. It'd taken him forever to get him to do it, simply because the language had become so apart of him after having lived abroad for so long, and he didn't want to treat it like some parlor trick or a performance act to amuse with. Sousuke had to convince him that he himself genuinely wants to learn, if only because he knows how much it means to Rin. They then had nightly lessons laying awake in bed where Rin would teach him little phrases and vocabulary here and there, many that were useful or common but wouldn't so readily be available in their school curriculum. 

 

All the same, he would never tell Rin, of course, that he absolutely loves the way the language sounds coming out of his mouth. "Cute" is probably the first word that springs to mind, and he's sure Rin would not appreciate that in the slightest. 

 

The English continues, now being exchanged with a feminine voice that Sousuke supposes is probably his homestay mother. The conversation goes on too quickly for Sousuke to catch everything, but he hears his own name and "my best friend" from Rin and a loud exclaim of delight from the woman of, "isn't that sweet!" She asks a question that Rin hesitates to answer. He glances at Sousuke, then back at her, shrugging and nodding as he does. Then Rin is leaning back in his chair as she suddenly appears beside him. 

 

She's blond, with smile lines on her round face and wide blue eyes. Sousuke thinks she looks adorable, comforting like a mother should be, and he's instantly relieved to know this is the person that had been taking care of Rin all those years. 

 

He understands, "hello, Sousuke! I'm Lori. It's so nice to finally meet you!" partly because he knows those words and partly because she takes care to speak slower and more calmly than she had a second ago. She says a few more things that he can't understand, but Souskue smiles all the same. 

 

"Nice to meet you," he responds in English, bowing his head. She turns to Rin and says something to him and he laughs, nodding. 

 

"What?" Sousuke asks.

 

"She says you're really handsome," he says, still grinning.

 

Sousuke laughs against his fist. "Tell her I'd ask her out if I didn't already know she's married."

 

"Don't flirt with my host mother through me." 

 

"Tell her." 

 

Rin rolls his eyes, then turns to Lori and reluctantly translates. She giggles into her hand and Sousuke can see the blush on her cheeks. He smiles. 

 

She says something again, her expression sly, and Rin grins bashfully in return. "She said, uh, it's no wonder I wouldn't rather have a girlfriend, and that I should keep you." 

 

"Wise woman." 

 

"Shut up." 

 

Lori says one more thing to Rin, and now it's Rin's turn to flush bright red. He stammers in English, "I…don't…" before glancing at Sousuke for the briefest of seconds.

 

He refuses to translate, no matter how many times Sousuke demands it, and suddenly Lori addresses Sousuke again. 

 

Sousuke understands a few key words, specifically "tonkatsu", which he's surprised to hear her actually say in Japanese, but Rin translates everything anyway.

 

"She said you're welcome to stay here any time you want to visit. And to please let her cook…pork cutlet for you." 

 

"How did she know…?"

 

"Stupid. How do you think?"

 

Sousuke chuckles. "She's very sweet." 

 

To Lori he says clearly with practiced ease, "thank you."

 

She nods. "Of course."

 

As she takes a step back to leave, Sousuke speaks again with words he had been practicing to say for when he finally got to meet these people: "and thank you for taking care of Rin for me." 

 

Rin looks somewhat startled by how perfectly he articulated the entire sentence. Beside him, Lori stares at Sousuke, a smile slowly stretching across her face. Tears begin to well in her eyes and Sousuke wants to laugh fondly, wants to ask Rin if his habit of crying was now so infectious that he had transferred it to these people.

 

Lori says something to Sousuke in a tone that sounds like she's one second away from bawling -- "he's like a son to us," Rin translates with a smile and a tender voice, "we should be thanking you for making him so happy" -- and then she kisses the top of Rin's head and excuses herself out of the room.

 

"I like her," Sousuke says when she's gone. 

 

"I knew you would."

 

"So, uh," Sousuke says, smirking. "What'd she say earlier? When you turned about seven different shades of red."

 

"No."

 

"Oh, come on. Language barrier is foul play."

 

"Ugh." Rin rubs the back of his neck, glancing away. "She said… _ugh_." He shuts his eyes, frowning hard, then quickly spits out, "she said she can tell by the way you look at me that you're deeply in love with me."

 

"Ahh," Sousuke laughs. "Wise and highly observant." 

 

"Stop," Rin scolds, rolling his eyes.

 

"I'll be proud to call that woman my host mother-in-law one day."

 

Rin stands up in his chair. "Okay, I'm leaving."

 

"I'm sorry!" Sousuke says through his laugh. "I'm done, I swear." 

 

"No, seriously," Rin says, easing back down. "She came in here to let me know dinner is ready, so I'm going to go eat real quick."

 

Sousuke snorts. "College boy still gets home cooked meals?"

 

"Hey, I did my time taking care of myself in high school." 

 

"Right, right."

 

"So," Rin continues. "I'll be back in an hour tops. Hang up, but don't shut down the program." 

 

"Alright. Enjoy your meal." 

 

"I will."

 

They stare at each other for a moment, neither willing to say goodbye first.

 

"So." 

 

"So…"

 

They laugh nervously. 

 

"It was nice seeing you," Rin says quietly when their shy laughter subsides.

 

Sousuke smiles. "Likewise." 

 

Seconds pass and they still don't move, and Sousuke has to laugh again. 

 

"Are you going to go eat or what?"

 

"Do you _want_ me to leave?!" Rin sounds offended. 

 

"No, but the sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back and we can proceed with this uninterrupted." 

 

"Right. Of course." 

 

Rin reaches over to his computer, his finger's toying with the trackpad as he's about to click off the video feed. His mouth opens in what Sousuke assumes is his goodbye and before the word leaves his lips, Sousuke interjects. 

 

"So I know this is a bad time to ask, but, uh, we're definitely going to use these things for webcam sex right?" 

 

" _Sousuke._ "

 

"Is that a no."

 

"Oh my god."

 

"I was kidding!" He pauses. "Sort of…" Another pause. "Actually I wasn't kidding at all."

 

"How about when my host family isn't home, you freak," Rin snaps through gritted teeth, his face bright pink.

 

"I'm gonna hold you to that."

 

"Shut up. Goodbye." 

 

"I love you."

 

"I know." Rin blows a kiss at the computer, waves, then the video cuts out. 

 

The words Call Ended appear on Sousuke's screen, and just as he's about to turn away from his monitor, he sees, on his desktop, a tiny icon suddenly appear. It has a bunch of numbers -- the date, the time, and the length of the call -- in its title, and ends in .avi to denote its file type. Sousuke blinks at the icon, then double clicks on it. His video player opens and suddenly their entire conversation starts playing back to him, from the moment the two figured out how to get the video working.

 

He smiles gently, momentarily pleased with how forward-thinking and handy this piece of technology would prove to be, then drags the file into a folder marked "Rin." It sits in there next to the photos of Australia Rin has sent him, the sound bits he'd recorded for Sousuke and left in his voicemail, the pictures the two of them had taken together in the airport before Rin's plane had taken off. 

 

He glances at his phone where it sits next to computer keyboard, hesitates, then picks it up. He finds Nitori's number in his contacts, then stamps out a quick message:

 

_let me know when's a good time for me to oversee one of your practices again_

 

The phone doesn't even touch the desk when he goes to put it back down before it vibrates and 

 

_any time!! tomorrow is good!!! practice is at the usual time THANK YOU SO MUCH_

 

flashes on the screen. 

 

Sousuke stares at the screen, sighs and thinks of what Rin would say if he were here to witness this, then types out, 

 

_I'll be there._


End file.
